Lifting confidence

Confidence is a precious flower. It is easily damaged or lost. The last three years have seen the UK’s standing at home and abroad damaged by political indecision. It has been undermined by a new coarseness of language and an anger of debate by some, and by MPs in the last Parliament who promised one thing to their electors to get elected in the 2017 election, only to do the opposite once elected.

Instead of a newly independent UK developing better trade contacts with the rest of the world whilst continuing with many links, contracts and partnerships with businesses, individuals and institutions in the EU, the UK was dragged down by its very own Parliament. The Parliament first voted to send the letter of withdrawal from the EU, then did everything in its power to undermine the UK government’s negotiating position in the long talks that followed. Now in this election all the opposition parties from the last Parliament seek to prevent or delay Brexit. They wish to prolong the agony, expose the UK to a longer period of uncertainty, and strengthen the hand of the EU even more in yet more negotiations .

A second referendum cannot unite the country behind a single course of action. The Lib Dems have already said they would ignore another vote to Leave. Why should Leave voters accept a second referendum result in the unlikely event that it went the other way, when their decision to leave has so far not been implemented. For the sake of UK democracy we have to accept the result of votes.

Remain politicians have always complained about anything which undermines confidence and defers investment. They must see it is their attempts to stop or delay Brexit further that is now the main cause of the very uncertainty they dislike. The economy can do well from here, but ending the political uncertainty would help.

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180 Comments

Mrs. May could have taken us out of the EU on 29th March 2019; she, and she alone, decided to request an extension when it was not needed nor legally required.

We now have a new PM who touts HIS oven-ready WA, when in fact it is no more than a warmed over May Treaty. The Institute for government’s analysis says there are ‘no significant changes’. And yet the government wishes us to believe it is now a wonderful new deal.

Well, if instead of to the extremists in its own party and the DUP, the Government had reached out to the other parties in Parliament, the UK would now be out of the European Union on terms with which a majority of the electorate could probably manage.

What kind of deal would the SNP, Lib Dems and other numerous remain MPs have actually ever voted for?
They wanted to remain in the EU and they would not agree to any deal that even went part way to leaving.

Those would be the “extremists” who thought that when the ballot paper offered the option of leaving the EU that would mean really leaving, not just pretending to leave while still remaining under EU control. Oddly enough I see you and your ilk as the “extremists”, so devoted to the EU that you are prepared to sacrifice our democracy in its cause.

Honesty and getting elected are often not compatible forcing politician who want power to lie or at least not be very honest!

An honest politician would say:- the state sector is far too large, state sector workers with pensions included are paid far more than the private sector can afford and are rather unproductive too, taxes need to be reduced significantly to become competitive, the banks lack real competition and are ripping customers off, we need to have a bonfire of red tape and fire red tape enforcers, the NHS is one of the worst systems for a wealth nation in the world and kills thousands every year, many schools are very poor and most £50K+ of debt university degrees are workless, climate alarmism is a grossly exaggerated con trick by group think scientists on the make, we should offer British Passports to people who need to escape from Hong Kong, renewables save virtually no C02 at all and CO2 is not really an issue anyway.

It would be honest to admit that someone who has been convicted of a serious terrorist offences (driven by mental health issues or some perverted religious beliefs) should never be allowed back into a position where he can kill or be persuaded to kill (perhaps even a large number) ever again. It is not possible to be sure that he will not do so however “expert” you are. To release them without even an assessment surely is a criminally stupid thing to do.

Or to admits all the gross errors made by various arms of the state sector in relation to Grenfell or Hillsborough. Will the former go on for 40 years too?

Just as it is not possible for so called “climate experts” or fake scientist come alarmist soothsayers to predict the climate for 100 years.

If only previous predictions of doom had come true.
In the 1980s the UN predicted disaster from global warming and said 10 years to save the planet.
Many other “x years to save the planet” predictions have come and gone without anything happening.
Those islands in the Pacific still stubbornly above water
Polar bear populations now at record levels for example.

In March 2009 the Prince of Wales issues a stark warning that nations have “less than 100 months to act” to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change! In July this year he said 18 months. What will the soothsays come up with next ?

Yet still he spend about £1 million on his personal transport each year.

“Precautionary Principle” – what utter tosh – we do not know if it will be warmer or colder in 100 years – we might well be taking action that would make matter worse.

You can only sensibly use the “Precautionary Principle” if you know what you are taking precautions against with confidence. Plus you have to ask if there are not far better ways to spend the money. There are in fact millions of better ways to spend it.

People often do not vote for honesty. Many prefer promises of unicorns, greencrap and other religious lunacy and duff promises and lies from Father Christmas and his magic money forest. Hopefully not too many.

Perhaps all we can hope for is a Conservative victory with enough proper leaver Mp’s in it, who refuse the back the so called Boris WA TREATY, and thus we leave on 31st January 2020 with a managed WTO Deal.

What is meant by a WTO deal? The WTO is a supranational body that has a set of rules on trade and an Appellate Body that adjudicates on trade disputes. Isn’t that a bit like, say, a group of 28 countries creating a Single Market with common rules and an independent referee like, say, the ECJ? You would surely hate to follow the rules of such an organisation wouldn’t you?

Villaking, No, the WTO is not a bit like the EU. Because the WTO does not keep on making new laws every month. Or even every year. For starters. And if you think the ECJ is “independent” I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Until she saw the chance to become Tory party leader and so Prime Minister Mrs May was overtly one of those “Remain politicians”, and even as she repeated that silly “Brexit means Brexit” slogan she was covertly working to stop Brexit.

That is why she never set up any rapid rebuttal unit to counter the incessant flood of anti-Brexit propaganda and instead allowed ministers to add to it.

I am not sure what was going on in the heads of Tory MPs when they chose her as their new leader after David Cameron ratted on his promises, rather than picking somebody who had actually campaigned to leave the EU.

Honesty is clearly not what you want. Because when you are repeatedly told by a vast army of experts in a huge number of fields that Brexit is immensely damaging to you, your family and your country – you choose to disbelieve them.

What you actually want is yes men – who tell you what you want to hear, no matter how untrue it is. You want the opposite of honesty.

Andy, Honesty is clearly not what you want. Because when you are repeatedly told by a vast army of experts in a huge number of fields that Brexit is perfectly viable for you, your family and your country – you choose to disbelieve them.

What you actually want is yes men – who tell you what you want to hear, no matter how untrue it is. You want the opposite of honesty.

Martin, Ahhh, is your Daddy bigger than my Daddy then? Actually there are a large number of economists and other experts whose opinions vary between ‘it won’t make much difference either way’ to ‘we’ll be better off out’. And the fact that there are 165 other countries in the world not in the EU, confirms that we can be too. Your swallowing project fear doesn’t make it true.

He didn’t say that.
Professor Minford said opened up to free trade both could suffer.
But he went on to say how government could support manufacturing and farming post Brexit.
Something we can’t currently do under EU rules.

She was a remainer and never intended to respect the result of the referendum as were most of her front bench colleagues.
Cameron was truly shocked by the referendum result and spent some time phoning the politicians like Obama who came over to tell us that we’d be at the back of the queue if we voted Leave
However if Donald Trump so much as voices an opinion he’s accused of interfering in our politics
Double standards!

Yes, the fact that the UK is a country, in which fifty-two percent of those who could be bothered to vote chose to leave the most advanced, enlightened, civilised project that this troubled world has ever seen is what damages confidence in this country on the part of other nations, Helena.

So far nothing the Brexiteers wanted has come to pass. We’ve not left the EU, we are still paying them, they still control our laws and our media still propagandise on their behalf. Why should it be Brexiteers who are criticised for failure to deliver?

The Brexiters could not delver as they were not in charge and had no majority. Too many remoaners, elected on a we will deliver Brexit basis but then ratting on their voters to try to kill Brexit at every turn.

LL, I think the evidence is against that. I do not see a huge cull of remainers from the Conservative party to be candidates for the forthcoming election. I have heard that Mr Johnson has got agreement from all his candidates to agree his treaty deal. However this just means that they have agreed to a non Brexit treaty (by all the articles I have read about the WA) and we will be having a Hard remain and be begging to rejoin. Mr Johnson may get a Conservative majority, but Parliament will still be a Remain majority. As to rebuttal, that seems almost non-existent, on today’s Politics Live the Con rep did not even mention GATT 24, as he could have done when posed if we hadn’t finished trade talks we would fall of said cliff edge again. He just harped on about getting the wonderful deal through. I sense there is a con trick happening and do not think Boris is going the way of hard bargaining and walking away.

Don’t be disingenuous. Everyone knows that machinations installed an easily controlled and weak PM in order to stall things so that the lawyers had time to get their dirty tricks in line and lead us to where we are now.
No-one believes the tripe being spouted by the likes of Swinson and Soubry. We’re “in this mess” because of pro-EU politicians, civil servants and lawyers using filthy underhand legal tricks – all facilitated (by his own admission) by an untouchable and biased Speaker.
If only they’d used their apparently superior minds to make Brexit a success from day one – instead they’ve done unspeakable damage to our democracy.

Oh dear. What negotiations were Brexiteers involved in, bearing in mind that May and Robbins were working to a parallel WA to that of Davis.
What promises have Brexiteers made that they could have enacted.
You anti-democrats do make me laugh though.

Just like the Brexit blockers who promised to respect the result of the referendum? The majority of them lied to the electorate (in order to get elected so they could then have the opportunity to destroy democracy from within) and there is no disguising it.

Unfortunately, the undemocratic liars in Parliament outnumber those who respect democracy, and this chaos is the result.

They weren’t leave politicians
I have compilations on YouTube of the remainers saying over and over again that the result would be respected but that was before the Leave supporters triumphed in the referendum, so please get your facts right!

Meanwhile, in the real world, the newly independent UK is desperately trying to develop better trade contacts with the rest of the world, only to be told – no, go away and come back once you have finally sorted out your future relationship with the EU and, by the way, we have no intention of offering you as good a deal as you have now as a member of the EU, because your precious independence simply means you are much much weaker than before

“UKIP MEP Dartmouth put forward amendments which he said: “require the commission to exclude specifically our British National Health Service from TTIP in its entirety.” One such amendment was roundly defeated 142-507.

He lambasted the voting record of Labour MEPs over this matter who he claimed consistently voted to undermine “legal protections for the NHS. UKIP stands up for the NHS even as the Labour party does not.”

An amendment was put forward by the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group, of which UKIP is part, to prevent the creation of ISDS, a private corporate-led arbitration court which would allow multinationals to sue states if their profits were challenged.

Because of what Dartmouth described as “political chicanery and Machiavellian manoeuvring” all amendments to try to stop ISDS were not even allowed to be voted on.”

If we remain in the EU and consequently our trading terms with the US are decided by people we did not elect and cannot remove there is a far greater danger of being subject to adverse terms than those that would be negotiated by a UK government seeking re-election.

As an example no UK government would today dare to trade away our NHS but it could happen that the EU does so in exchange for lower tariffs on German cars and French food and wine.

A 3 year transition period when we concede to all the EU demands won’t help restore confidence.
At the end of 2022 we will be in exactly the same position as we are now because unless we agree to free movement, common fisheries and EU budget contribution nothing will change.

We can all be well infirmed Bill with a little research. Weyland, Barnier and the Irish punter who has been given the job as chief negotiator have said over the past couple of weeks……. trade talks cannot be concluded until the fate of EU nationals, the access to fishing and our ongoing contribution to the EU budget are agreed.
As for the Transition Period, the definition of transition is a movement from one place/outcome to another. In Euro speak it means do nothing extension.
Unless all EU demands are met or none, then we find ourselves at the same “cliff edge” again in July when a further extension has to be agreed.
Just watch our side run up the white flag.

Andy covered this well, with his reference to smashing up your car with a sledgehammer in front of the sales staff at a dealers, and insulting them, before threatening to walk away if they didn’t give you a top range model for free.

I would have no great concerns about “a 3 year transition period” per se, it is the contents of the rest of your post that really worry me. I am assuming here that the other continuing EU member states will still allow the Irish government to have a de facto veto over the future agreement, even if it has no de jure veto:

“But in a sense it doesn’t matter whether or not Ireland technically has the claimed right of veto, because if the big EU states really want something the Irish government will generally drop any opposition and go along with it.”

I certainly don’t want to repeat all the things I have said before about transitional provisions being a commonplace element of international treaties but I would like to link back to this in December 2017:

“I’ve been saying for more than a year now that I have no problem with appropriate transitional provisions being built into our withdrawal agreement(s).”

“However my condition is that the transitional deal must be in the form of transitional provisions written into a withdrawal treaty which takes us out of the EU when it comes into force, but with some of the present legal and practical arrangements wound down gradually afterwards according to a pre-determined schedule, not in the form of treaty arrangements which would take us out of the EU but at the same time effectively keep us halfway in through the EEA or similar, potentially in perpetuity.”

“Well, what a fool I’ve been, I should have known that if you give the euromaniacs an inch then they will try to take a yard, it’s what they always do, and now we have all this oxymoronic nonsense about a “standstill” or “status quo” transition.”

Free movement – – -flooding England with foreign born housing, NHS and benefit freeloaders and criminals.
Common fisheries – They steal all the fish in our waters.
EU budget contribution – – We carry on filling the bank accounts of those who want England destroyed.

Many politicians in the UK have exposed their lack of respect for democracy, and the electorate. We knew it was there, due to the continuous handing of power to the EU without allowing the electorate a choice, but it is now out in the open.

Many UK Politicians have proven without doubt that they will lie and cheat and ignore the electorate when it suits and those same politicians also reject Trump, the elected US President, but have no problems with unelected Presidents and officials in the EU. They are killing off democracy and want to decide between themselves (and with no regard to the voters) who governs, as happens in the EU.

Shirley – well said. We must hope that their electors have watched with concern the voting, the refusal to accept the Ref decision, the intentional delay and objection in the Hof C of anything to bring matters to a conclusion. On Dec 12th the electors should pass judgement on the MPs who have worked against the country’s interest and not vote for those who cause the stalement.

I thought you might claim that as your reply.
The point you miss is that Parliament can then change the law and or rewrite exiting law after a UK court ruling if it wishes.
As you keep telling us Parliament is supreme.
The crucial difference is that we can’t do that with EU law and ECJ rulings.
Basics indeed.

And let us not forget, that the PM and Government is made up from that same Parliament. The sooner the legislature and the executive is separated the better.

What BREXIT has shown is that our system, which has delivered relatively stable government, can not cope when those entrusted cannot abide by the will of the people. Many now realise that elections do not do anything other than allow one party or another to have a go at being in charge. They do not do anything as the power is rested with the EU.

The EU is a Civil Servants dream come true. Power without responsibility, or even accountability, and the effective neutering of parliaments and the people. If the Civil Servants decide a course of action, then that action is taken best at EU level so as to bypass both governments and people.

The problem with Civil Servants running the show is, when things go wrong they cannot be easily put right as there is no ‘feedback mechanism’ in place. So if a policy, as witnessed in the EURO Area, of austerity is imposed it can have very damaging effects and there is little that can be done about it. The people can vote as many parties that want to change the policy but, no matter who you vote for you cannot affect change. Voting therefore becomes meaningless.

The WA (treaty) would deliver the UK into a position far worse than is now. It would be far better for the UK to Leave without one, but I cannot see it happening with the present PM.

We have long suffered a Remain – Pro-EU parliament, and until we elect one that is for Leave we shall suffer the same.

To be an MP you must have a Masters in lying and obfucation.
It also helps if you have little or no knowledge of science or commerce.
You can then extol the virtues of windmills which as we speak is generating about 4% of demand whllst boasting it is generating 53% of supply.
On this glorious frosty high pressure morning, thousands wind farms lie dormant.
Charlatans the lot of them.

You are exactly right. Our deluded transport secretary even thinks that electric cars are zero emission! Where does he think the energy to charge them comes from? Plus all the energy needed to manufacture the cars and the expensive, short life batteries?

Many are unemployable but don’t yet realise it..
It seems you only need to practice speaking to yourself in a mirror with a straight face.
When Labour say Jeremy Corbyn is an honest broker …..
Says it all…..!

Maybe what is required is the election of a government so brutal that it will jolt the British electorate into life. Only then when their freedoms, income and assets have been stripped and taken will they wake up and stop voting for parties that are working hard to deceive them

Dominic
But if they’re that ”brutal” then they would find a way of making sure they couldn’t be got rid of. Why should they allow themselves to be voted out, come the revolution?

It’ll be bad enough being tied firmly to ”our EU friends” (as BJ seems to wish) and having our future elections overseen by them. In either event, eurosceptic parties are going to have a tough time of it. The notion of ”free and fair” may become a thing of the past.

“Maybe what is required is the election of a government so brutal that it will jolt the British electorate into life”

Which could very well happen. If England finds itself being governed by a Labour/SNP Government on 13th December with unelected SNP MPs forcing through their disastrous policies on England only, hopefully the people of England will finally snap and say they have had enough. John talks of democracy yet he and his colleagues refuse to address the English Question, the West Lothian Question or the skewed Barnett Formula.

A very large number of ‘Remainer’ MPs are those who entered politics as an occupation and their desire for us to continue our membership of the EU has little to do with the best interests of the UK. They, I am sure, see our leaving the EU as the end of their ultimate career prospects.

Their actions over the last 3 years have inflicted serious damage to our economy from which we will recover. However if it is allowed to continue as the Lib/Dems, SNP and others want it to, it could, as the CBI stated, put a fatal split right through our economy

Indeed and the little confidence that is left will drain away if we get anything other than a clear Conservative majority. One that is large enough to over come the many Conservative traitor/remoaners that have still idiotically been allowed to stand again as fake Conservatives.

You say “They must see it is their attempts to stop or delay Brexit further that is now the main cause of the very uncertainty they dislike.” Indeed but the dopes do not. On the Labour side some even seem to think their economic politics are sane.

Still it seems Carney has lined up another job as a pushed of climate alarmist drivel, when on earth does the vastly over paid, wrong on almost everything, PPE graduate finally go?

Certainly the BBC does nothing at all for confidence. Once again today with their totally one sided drivel agenda of irreversible Climate Alarmism. Never a sensible scientist to point out that it is exaggerated drivel & nonsense. Never any climate realist to point out the drivel they are talking.

To the BBC wind, wave, hydro, public transport, electric cars, “renewables”, bikes good but flights, trucks, cars, vans, fossil fuels, nuclear (usually too) is bad. Unless of course it is Emma Thompson and Prince Charles types flying first class or in private jets.

This is wrong headed simplistic drivel which is only believed by a few dim art graduated of the type that work at the BBC. Five people in a car is far more efficient and far faster than five bikes fuelled by human food for example! But then as I pointed out yesterday the travel secretary hasn’t got a clue either. But how can the BBC get away with this one sided religion? Get Matt Ridley, Piers Corbyn or a sensible physicist on like Richard Lindzen one. But not one who is bent or seeking grant funding or is a quack climate scientist please. We have had more than enough of them for a lifetime.

Maybe what is required is the election of a government so radical that the everyday lives of Tory MPs is changed out of all recognition. Maybe then, they also will wake up and change direction away from the leftward and liberal march they’ve been on since 1990

If Labour do achieve power and impose open borders the Home Counties, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and other quaint regions of England will be changed forever.

It would be welcome to our world, the world of real people, and then you will understand our anger and why we view the contemporary Tory party as one that has betrayed its own values, this nation and its people with your capitulation to the left and liberal piety that has done so much damage to the UK

If you wish to lift confidence do not go down the Boris WA2 route which is guaranteed to prolong the agony for years to come. Realise that the EU are not logical or reasonable negotiators, they want all the eggs and the basket. Assuming you get a good working majority, something the EU probably fear, go for a clean break along the lines we have discussed. Knowing the future business environment will create the confidence we all require. It will also enable government to get on with the domestic programme which has been in the shade for too long.

But they aren’t accepting the result of votes are they? Except those that suit.
In fact they have spent over three years trying to find a way to ignore the 2016 and 2017 votes.
That’s what all the theatre has been about.
Our enemies are using “ democracy” against us.
And succeeding.

In the ITV debate last night, the Conservative rhetoric of “getting Brexit done” by the end of January was, I thought, successfully undermined. If I remember correctly, both the SNP and Lib Dem leaders pointed out the distinction between Boris’ much-vaunted “deal” – i.e. the legally binding WA plus the non-legally binding PD – and the trade deal that is the intended outcome of the PD. This means, surely, that the “cliff-edge” rhetoric from the opposition will continue until the Conservatives either concede as much as the EU asks for in order to get a “deal” by the end of next year, or extend the negotiating period and concede the same things anyway. I cannot see the Conservatives intending to implement the clean-break, Leave the EU Brexit for which we voted, because if they were, they would not ratify the WA.

“Why should Leave voters accept a second referendum result in the unlikely event that it went the other way”

But it wouldn’t go the other way, in the second referendum they will allow 3 million EU citizens to vote and reduce the voting age to 16, and the choice will be Remain or Remain (Corbyn’s deal to stay in the CU/SM and hence with free movement and annual contributions). How could Remain fail to win ?

The deep state has been working since the very beginning on a second referendum between a “credible” (viz the worst possible deal they can think of) and remain.

I have thought long and hard as to which option I would choose at this second referendum, where the voting mandate will be gerrymandered as you have noted, and have come to the conclusion that however bad is the “credible” deal it is still better than remaining in the EU as it will not be possible to continue the fight for our freedom whilst our government, MPs, civil service, judiciary, educational establishment, quangos, NGOs and MSM, the corporates etc. are corrupted by the EU using our tax money.

Interesting that Goldman Sachs – an organisation which was in the vanguard of remain – is now strongly bullish on U.K. prospects should Boris win with a good working majority. It is clear that sterling is now tracking the election closely. It looks like a good Tory majority, pound up, it looks like a govt made up of Marxists and Scottish separatists, pound down.

Our international standing has been massively damaged – but not by Parliament. It has been damaged by Brexit.

Literally everything you say applies in reverse. I agree just cancelling Brexit would be terrible. But I’m afraid just ploughing ahead when a clear majority now opposes what you are doing will be equally terrible. Yes, the Tories might win the election but remain / second referendum parties will probably get significantly more votes. So where is your mandate for Johnson’s deal – which is the only Brexit on offer?

I hate Brexit. There are very many millions of people like me – and we are predominately significantly younger than most of you. How do you intend to bring us together? And, here’s a tip, calling me a traitor or a remoaner or telling me to shut up because you won will not cut it.

Over the years we have had destructive Labour governments that I have not voted for and certainly not wanted. All have left the country in a worse state than when they came to power.
I hated these governments, but I accepted that was the majority view and didn’t feel the need to become a whinging cry baby.
How about that one ?

You seem to forget that we only had the referendum because Parliament passed an Act ordering that it be held. It was not something imposed on us by an external agency without the involvement and authorisation of Parliament, was it. Having passed that Act, multiple stages in both Houses, and having then approved an official leaflet to be delivered to every household expressly promising that the government would implement the decision, whichever way it went, a majority of parliamentarians in both Houses went back on their word. It was a matter of days, if not only hours, after the votes were counted that some of them started to look for ways to vitiate the result because it was not their personal preference. The blame rests squarely with Parliament, not with Brexit as you like to think.

This is the reason why a Corbyn government is a very real possibility with the prospect of him turfing your kids out of private school and confiscating your wealth – all because you’ve treated fellow Tory voters like dirt and they refuse to be your lackeys any longer.

How can confidence be lifted if meaningless drivel and untruths are regularly delivered by Tory MPs about the Boris deal? I refer to the debate on Sunday evening where Rishi Sunak Tory MP was attempting to defend the Boris deal. Nigel Farage was challenging him about what the Boris deal was going to deliver. Sunak did not seem willing to answer to begin with and then eventually came up with what I consider to be a totally dishonest representation of what the Boris deal gives us:

“We want a deep and comprehensive economic and security partnership with Europe. “It is outlined already in the political declaration that has been negotiated. “It means we can leave the EU intact as one union in control of our laws, our borders and our trade policy”.

‘What are you going to deliver?’ Farage condemns Tories over Brexit plans

The Brexit Party leader grilled the Conservative representative on the exact details of the Tories Brexit plan. Mr Sunak originally avoided answering the question but following several attempts by Mr Farage to gain a further explanation one was provided.

Mr Farage said: “If you carry on with the deal as it was, it is not Brexit it’ll take years to deliver and millions of people will be very upset and disappointed.
“So the question is, is it oven-ready or are you going to go for a free trade deal?”

The Conservative representative replied: “Nigel has been a tireless campaigner for leaving the EU.”
The Brexit Party leader agreed: “I have absolutely.”

Mr Sunak continued: “But the difference between Nigel and me is that only my party the Conservative Party can actually deliver Brexit.”

The former UKIP leader asked: “Yes but what are you going to deliver?”

Mr Sunak said: “A vote for anybody else including your party Nigel is just going to mean Jeremy Corbyn in number 10 and that’s going to mean no Brexit and years more of delay, division and deadlock and that move us forward.”

Mr Farage continued to demand an answer: “What are you going to deliver?
“Are you going for a free trade deal yes or no?

“No answer.”

The host of the debate then intervened: “I am just going to ask Rishi Sunak to address that direct question.”

The Conservative said: “We want a deep and comprehensive economic and security partnership with Europe. “It is outlined already in the political declaration that has been negotiated. “It means we can leave the EU intact as one union in control of our laws, our borders and our trade policy.

I fear we certainly ARE doomed either way.
We’re doomed to something quite horrible if Corbyn and his lot get their hands on the levers of power.
We’re doomed if BJ gains his majority and pushes through his surrender document, as the EU, once they have been offered this stranglehold (thanks, BJ) won’t allow us to do anything that will loosen it. Such as giving a brexit party a chance in the future.
I suppose that the only tiny ray of hope is that the EU won’t want quite to kill off its milch cow, so our country might survive to some extent and for a while.
Yes, Sir John, confidence is indeed precious. My own confidence in BJ soared when he gave his first rousing speech (at last cometh the man!) but it soon wilted and was lost when he showed himself to be just another paper tiger, or worse.

All quite true. I am a bit bemused by Conservative party activity in Wokingham borough though. I have been getting Lib Dem leaflets through the post virtually every day since the election was announced. Last week one piece of campaign literature from Labour trickled in. Has Shinfield been deemed ultra-safe Tory territory? You would not think there were recent polls showing the Lib Dems being much more competitive than they were in the past.

Reply As stated on this site, all Postal voters received two letters, and all other voters are receiving hand delivered and postal leaflets this week. There have also been dozens of tweets, a daily blog or two on this site,the Ask John series on Facebook etc

“a second referendum result in the unlikely event that it went the other way”

As Dominic Cummings has rightly said in his recent blog, remainers in power would ensure any ‘second referendum’ will be deliberately primed, enfranchised and fraudulently organised to give only one result.

And btw, the signs are that the forthcoming election is also being ‘community organised’ online in a well-funded to ensure the Conservatives do not gain a majority, with massive electoral fraud on a scale yet unseen in the UK. The innately pro-remain Electoral Commission will continue to turn a blind eye. Any appeals will get nowhere with the innately pro-Remain judiciary at the top.

I also have to ask that question. Officially for each party it is capped at £30,000 for each constituency.

Then the picture gets muddy – At a local level, each candidate’s spending limit is different. It is calculated by adding together a fixed amount of £8,700, plus either 9p or 6p per registered voter in their constituency.

Then it is further muddied by groups that are not officially Political parties, there is sort of a limit, but changing the group name often while having the same management.

Then there are those that have their own rules, EU Commission as a for instance, as rulers of the UK they can do what they like.

Reply The expense limit is around £16,000 per candidate, as you say depending on numbers of electors

The Wokinghampaper carried an advert, and I have 9 different colour pamphlets plus a letter from Dr Lee.
If the pamphlets and letter were copied to all approx 80,000 registered can they really do that for £16,000?

Has Sir John decided not to spend (any of )his £16,000 maximum due to no budget, or perceive it is a lost cause?

Reply I am keeping to budget and have produced five different leaflets to be delivered by hand or freepost so I keep beneath the ceiling.The main leaflet goes to all hand delivered and the main freepost leaflet goes to all. All postal voters should have received two letters in the first half of the campaign.

Hi there John Redwood. I am re-reading your ‘We Don’t Believe You’. It certainly seems the UK electorate are shouting that now.
As it happens it was the Brexit Referendum result that turned the spotlight onto voter disillusion with the 2 main parties but surely that disillusion was there before and showed in poor turnout for elections.
Also, with Ukip there was already signs of a growth of populist Parties.
Way back I remember you opposing PR. Probably because you feared that same growth of populist parties and the resulting inability of governments to govern.
I would like you to revive that post on PR please and/or reexamine the question now that we have already suffered a hung parliament and we are possibly facing even worse (Corbyn et al) with the FPTP voting system.

Fingers crossed, we do get Boris’ Government/WA. A few Brexit party +/or Ukip MP’s would be good too.

Reply I favoured first past the post because it means each constituency knows who their rep is, and it is more likely to give us a majority government to make some decisions.

Indeed “it is more likely to give us a majority government” – it does however force people to make a choice between only two or perhaps three candidates who have any chance of winning. You vote to stop X rather than for Y. Essentially elections are decided by rather a few swing voters in perhaps just 100 seats. They other get no say at all.

I do not agree with proportional representation (PR) as it does not tie a specific MP to a constituency and consequently inept and corrupt MPs cannot be removed by the electorate.

FPTP is far better than PR for these reasons but I believe that AV is better still because :

1) It still enables a constituency to be represented by a specific MP who can be removed at the next election (or before through re-call) if the voters wish.

2) The winning candidate will have received 50% or more of the votes, which is far more democratic than the wrong outcome occurring for a constituency through vote splitting, as well as being bad for democracy in the long term.

There would be no need for the current farce of tactical voting.

It is already used for the election of police commissioners and in modified forms for the election of the CP leader and the HoC Speaker.

I see a sort of irony in your ‘post’ I have just received my weekly newspaper from the un-democratic’s saying I have 2 choices on who Governs the UK next week either a vote for a Trump Brexit or vote to stop Brexit. All fairly emotive, if not spurious in its outpourings.

The irony bit that relates to your post here, is that the infamous doctor I am being asked to vote for, he promised his electorate at the last election that a vote for him was a vote to leave the EU deal or no deal.

The Newspaper also states that the Labour Party is out of the running. Inferring it will never get to run the Country

Where has the honesty and integrity gone? If I took the advice of this newspaper and voted for their candidate and other people did the same, it would be Labour that gets in and not them. Labour would rule the country, and these un-democratics would be facilitating what gives the impression of being a fully fledged Marxist Party.

What to me seems to me at stake is one party is half inferring we might become a free people to make our own mistakes. Then a coalition of some 5-6 odd-balls that want to ensure that can never happen, moving us to the left in a big way and abdicate the rule of this Country to an un-accountable, un-representative cabal.

Also received the same notification today, that now makes it 9 circulars from this organisation, I wonder how much they are spending, leafleting like this is not cheap to print and deliver.
All falling of deaf ears in this house.
They really do want your old seat John. !

According to order.order.com the doctor spent a fortune on targeted social media – however, clicked the wrong option, the targeted audience was Woking. To the amusement of the residents of Woking he is not on their ballot paper

If he spent a fortune on social media he has been ripped off!
I’ve never voted Liberal or the latest incarnation Libnodemocrats. I have never joined Facebook, Instagram, or any other nonsense. Phone calls, video calls, emails are always better. I don’t want people messsaging me their next meal, what Lineker has just said or who has got thousands of likes. How on earth would a system suggest I might vote for the johnny-come-lately Libwhatever they waffle about wanting to do. When Sir John gets a 10,000 majority I will have a bloody good laugh (at Dr Lee’s expense (geddit?)

I am very surprised Sir John, that you are not celebrating today the EU Ceremony to mark the start of the new European Commission and the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Lisbon. We should be treated to this on the BBC surely.

Looking at the new EU Commission lining up yesterday wouldn’t you just wish that this bunch of bright happy confident people were running the country instead of the dullards, misfits and self serving liars that we have to choose from

The European voters evidently do not wish it, as most of these deadbeats have been rightly booted out of office in their own countries, and have received the traditional consolation prize of a highly-paid sinecure in Brussels, where they are unaccountably appointed after the usual horse-trading, and completely unaccountable to the European tax-payers who fund them. ‘Bright’ is the very last attribute I’d associate with them – ‘happy and [self-]confident’ perhaps, and little wonder. The EU’s political set-up is rather like the public school network as described by Evelyn Waugh’s Captain Grimes in Decline and Fall: ‘They may kick you out, but they never let you down.’

No. At least with our own goverrnment, we get to choose, vote, and they can be kicked out directly and individually by voters at elections. With commissioners, even after proven incompetence that damages millions, e.g. Junkers and VATMOSS, if they know the right people they are untouchable.

Well, as we all know, the Conservatives are a party that increases taxation at every turn (while delivering dire public services too). As we have see under chancellors Major, Clarke, the IHT ratter Osborne and the appalling Philip Hammond. Though they usually lie that they are “low tax at heart” or going to cut taxes or similar near to elections. Hammond even liked to say he was “cutting taxes” and “repaying the debt” while he was actually delivering the highest and most complex and idiotic tax system for 40 years.

A favourite trick is to promise to keep certain tax rates down Income tax & VAT for example the same – but then muck about with the thresholds and put all the other taxes up. As we saw with insurance tax, pension pot mugging taxes, loss of child benefit, NI increases, up to 18% stamp duty proposed, the taxation of profits not even actully made by landlords, punative CGT rates, loss of child benefit and personal allowances for many…….

The best one can say is they are not as dire as Mc Donnall and a trip to Venezuella.
On council tax they have already given councils to increase the rate to 3 times normal for unoccupied units. This for not having to empty the bins or educatate anyone living their I assume!

I envisioned all of this 3 years ago. Procrastination makes money for the few.I have seen how our biggest employer the NHS was open to corruption and control by those wanting to take money out of it even though the majority did not want it this way. Money which has gone to make a few rich and a sucking up by those loudmouths who saw something in it for them.
I have no confidence at all in politics .

As we are running in the amber zone of peak electricity generation open circuit gas turbines are being used generating 190 mw. This is the price we have to pay when wind which supposedly makes up 53% of our generating capacity only gives us 10% on a winters evening. Solar zero.

The 53% is electricity (only about 20% of total energy used) generated from so called “low carbon sources” – hydro, nuclear, wind, solar and the absurd burning of imported bio fuels so not just wind! It ignores the cost of all the back up needed (both financial and carbon). In short it is another greencrap con trick.

I would feel more confident than I currently do if WA2 did not feature so strongly with the Tories. I like many of the policies but WA2 will keep us tied to the EU and despite Sir John writing about us leaving the EU we will not. If the EU is allowed any influence at all they will increase it and I have no doubt Tories will cave under pressure.

Dismaying, indeed, Prangwizard. I find it utterly incomprehensible that so many MPs have PLEDGED (that’s an oath, word of honour, commitment, guarantee) that they will abandon May’s WA as ‘dead’. That’s d e a d. How on earth can they be prepared to resurrect it, to support and extol it, even to tell us how wonderful and desirable it is and that it will make all our wishes come true?
Their EU masters must be rubbing their paws in glee as the glittering prize that’s the UK is dangled before them.

More reason to hold Political Parties accountable for deviations to their Party Manifestos.These are the promises they make to the public in order to be elected. Labour, at present, is promising huge rewards to the public that they can never keep. Unfortunately there are too many citizens who will believe what they are told and vote accordingly.
Manifestos must be treated as a firm legal contract and when breached, action can be taken against the perpetrators. In a democracy no one is above the law.

Like Leave will even be on the ballot paper next time, the elites will not make that mistake. It will be the loser from the first round against BRINO. I for one will boycott it and I hope every leave voter does.

I hope The Conservative Party / Government make a big fuss of the great bravery of the chef who took on the terrorist in recent, London knife attack.

Having sustained 5 knife wounds in the kitchen, trying to contain the terrorist, the chef then chased the terrorist up onto the street, spraying him from a can, whilst warning people on the street to stay away from the terrorist. People came to the chef’s assistance and the terrorist was then stopped.

What a brave man! (So often we hear the bad stuff, but we need to acknowledge the good stuff as well).

JR, Come on, it isn’t “political indecision” that has caused a loss of confidence; it’s political lying. Or as you put it: MPs promising one thing and doing another. Everyone knew what Leave meant before 23 June 2016, so no Remain has an excuse.

This week I will again have to pay tariffs, this time to buy a couple of torches from asia that would cost double that in the EU.

I have no idea how much I could have saved if we had a free trade deal with the US too.

If we properly leave the EU we can buy cheaper and better quality products around the world, doing that would instil more than confidence in the British people.

About John Redwood

John Redwood won a free place at Kent College, Canterbury, and graduated from Magdalen College Oxford. He is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has set up an investment management business, was both executive and non executive chairman of a quoted industrial PLC, and chaired a manufacturing company with factories in Birmingham, Chicago, India and China. He is the MP for Wokingham, first elected in 1987.